30+ tips for those 20+

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity – Tom Stoppard, British playwright.

For all in HR, share this with your younger Millennials. If you be one, read it carefully; twice is best.

Workers in their 20’s are typically more impatient, are more easily disillusioned, more demanding, more mobile, more ambitious and more impetuous than their older colleagues. Many feel disengaged at work. Most are lacking in one thing – sagacity: the capacity to make sound and considered judgments; to be wise, discerning and far sighted. This is compensated, in part, by an ability to learn quickly.

If you are in work, whether it be part-time, casual/contingent, full-time or contract and you are in your 20’s consider the following: they come from observation, from common sense and, you guessed it, sagacity.

Get yourself a ‘ticket’, that is, get a qualification in something, whether it be a certificate, an apprentice, an internship, a diploma or a degree. The ‘ticket’ is the foundation upon which to build your career. Once you’ve got it, it’s yours forever

Aim to learn at least one thing about your workplace and yourself each week – write it down in a learning diary

Adopt a self development strategy that will see you engage in continuous learning

Express to your employer a hunger for training – take what ever training you can get for free

Identify the very best workers in your workplace. Learn from them and emulate, or better still, exceed their achievements

Practice and practice until you learn how to turn off after work – the earlier you do this in your career the easier it will be

Understand early the concept of a work-life balance

Make your own lunch and take a jar of coffee or tea

Recognize that you need to do something about any bad workplace behavior that is directed at you from either colleagues, superiors or management – take action immediately and talk to someone sensible and whom you trust outside of work. And listen to the advice they offer

Understand your rights and entitlements and raise any issues of concern to you with your supervisor, your supervisor’s boss, the HR unit or the relevant union

Avoid credit cards – use a debit card

Don’t borrow from a friend for soon you’ll have none

Don’t lend money to a friend for you’ll lose both

Borrow smart – it’s best to borrow to make money than loose it

Understand the criticality of superannuation and retirement savings plans. Aim to contribute 12 to 15 per cent of your salary. To do so will see you, between the years of 20 and 65, accumulate $600,000 or more in today’s dollars. Also resist any temptation to access these savings before retirement as you may have 30 or more years in that space

Plan your retirement: start now

Establish a savings budget and stick to it

Buy a second hand car – leave the new car for those who can’t afford it

Find your passion early and find a job where you can give expression to it even if it takes a while to get the right fit

Understand the risks to your health and safety at work and take steps to reduce such risks

Find and keep a mentor

Undertake the self assessment tools found in this eBook that are especially relevant to you. Revisit them from time to time to see how you are tracking

Listen to, observe and learn from those you admire

Read, read, read. Listen, listen, listen

Establish interests external to the workplace and cultivate friendships there – look for a mix of friends

Understand the threats and opportunities faced by your employer and manage your career accordingly

Know your talents and your weaknesses and advance the first and work on the second

Deal with crap now, don’t reflect on it decades on

Set personal goals that challenge you yet make them achievable with effort

Be very careful with your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Second Life and similar postings or your tweets or blogs, as inappropriate, obscene, imprudent, malevolent posts may be regretted by you and inimical to your employer’s or prospective employer’s interests or values. Employers are increasingly performing pre-employment screening via social media. Whilst this raises significant ethical and legal questions the fact is that employers are resorting to this form of candidate checking yet few will ever declare the fact. Remember, stupidity is never erased by regret

Stay fit and healthy and take steps early in your career to reduce your risk factors

Think before you execute, not vice versa

Be well mannered as manners matter

Accept the fact that your folks have been around a bit more than you and chances are they’ll know stuff that you don’t

If you live under the roof of your folks you do so for one reason – economics! So, take this charity as a great opportunity to save, save, save

Get a mortgage that is manageable and kill it as quickly as you can

Do not rest easy on the inheritance from your folks for you will, most likely, have retired by that time

Be authentic, stay natural

From: Leadership with a ‘T’ - a forthcoming eBook ( yep it will be out one day)